Customer Reviews

A Guide to Rock Art Sites: Southern California and Southern Nevada

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This is a GREAT book to have if you have any interest in petroglyphs. Whitley lays out a plausible and well supported theory for what they mean and how they came about (keep that in mind the next time those interpretative park rangers tell you no one knows what they mean).

This is a very pretty book, in the best sense. Thee pictures of the sites are very good, and detailed driving/hiking directions and clear maps are given to get to the sites. They vary from easy to quite challenging. Pretty much all of the major sites inthe US Southwest are covered.

This book cuts through the clutter of previous rock art meanings and uses the wisdom of the native americans to describe these symbols. I enjoyed reviewing his descriptions of the sites I have already visited and learned the locations of many more. Complete directions, maps, and contacts for each site are included. This is an excellent resource for people who love rock art!

An excellent survey of rock art that fits the pictographs and petroglyphs into a social and psychological model based on native american interpretations of meaning. Detailed listings and directions to more familiar sites will no doubt increase visitation but the presence of people interested in preservation will hopefully deter those only motive is to deface places of beauty and wonder. Whitley's academic background enhances the book and it has appeal to informed readers and those just discovering rock art.

I have read dozens of Southwest rock art & ruins books. The author is a PHD with decades of experience performing rock art research and teaching on the subject. This book is much more than a guide to rock art sites, in fact that is the weakest part of the book in my opinion. I only say weakest, because there are not that many sites that looked that interesting to visit to me in the book, and many of the more interesting sites require a guide or a tour scheduled months in advance. HOWEVER, I have been spoiled living in Arizona and having been to around hundred rock art sites in the Four Corners area that you can explore on your own, which is a lot more fun than going on a tour with 20-40 others where you have to stay on a trail which is often 50 to more than 100' away from the rock art. What is so great about the book is what Whitley writes on the research done on rock art sites around the world, the dating methods used and how studies have shown that many of the images probably have entoptic origins. His latest work goes into much more details about the history of dating rock art and some of the problems that arose in the dating methods he promoted in this book, Cave Paintings and the Human Spirit: The Origin of Creativity and Belief Overall, I found the book very fascinating.